person poster

Personal Info

Gender

Male

Birthday

1909-06-27 (115 years old)

Place of Birth

Springfield, Massachusetts, USA

Billy Curtis

Biography:

Billy Curtis (June 27, 1909 - November 9, 1988) was an American film and television actor. He was a dwarf who had a 50-year career in a variety of roles. He was born on 27 June 1909 in Springfield, Massachusetts, and died November 9, 1988 in Dayton, Nevada, of a heart attack. According to the IMDb site, his birth name was Luigi Curto, and his height was 4 feet 2 inches (1.27 m). The bulk of his work was in the western and science fiction genres. One of his early jobs was as one of the Munchkins in The Wizard of Oz. He also appeared in Adventures of Superman in the 1950s. Most notably, Curtis worked in westerns, including the Clint Eastwood feature, High Plains Drifter in which he featured as Mordecai, a friendly dwarf sympathetic to Eastwood, he also appeared in the 1938 Musical/Western The Terror of Tiny Town. This film is, as far as is known, the world's only Western with an all-dwarf cast. Many of the actors in Tinytown were part of a performing troupe called Singer's Midgets, who also played Munchkins in The Wizard of Oz, released in 1939. He also had a starring role in American International Pictures' 1973 release, Little Cigars, about a gang of "midgets" on a crime spree.

Known For

Acting

1986

1985

Head Office as Reverend Lynch
The Twilight Zone as (segment "Personal Demons")

1984

1982

Eating Raoul as Little Person

1979

Knots Landing as Billy Curtis

1978

Loose Shoes as Menchkin

1976

1975

White House Madness as Secret Service Man
The Wild McCullochs as Charlie P.

1973

Little Cigars as Slick Bender

1972

Evil Roy Slade as Toy Cowboy (uncredited)

1971

Aphrodisiac: The Love Secret as Man on the Street Interviewee

1970

Norwood as Edmund B. Ratner

1969

Hello, Dolly! as Little Person (uncredited)

1968

Planet of the Apes as Child Ape (uncredited)
The Legend of Lylah Clare as Clown (uncredited)
Here's Lucy as Herman

1966

Out of Sight as The Man From F.L.U.S.H.
Star Trek as Small, copper skinned ambassador (uncredited)
Batman as Midget
The Monkees as Midget

1965

Two on a Guillotine as Big Mike (uncredited)

1964

1963

1962

1961

1959

1958

1957

Man of a Thousand Faces as Harry Earles (uncredited)

1956

Friendly Persuasion as Midget at County Fair (uncredited)

1955

Gunsmoke as Arizona

1954

Princess of the Nile as Tut (uncredited)

1952

Limelight as Midget in Agent's Office (uncredited)

1951

Superman and the Mole Men as Mole-Man (uncredited)

1950

Pygmy Island as Makuba

1948

Homicide for Three as Circus Performer
April Showers as Capt. Rudolph L. Nemo

1947

1943

The Hard Way as Vaudeville Midget (Uncredited)

1942

Don't Lie as Melinda, the chimp
Lucky Legs as Newsboy
Saboteur as Midget - Circus Troupe

1941

Ice-Capades as George
Hellzapoppin' as Bodyguard (uncredited)
Maisie Was a Lady as Midget (Uncredited)

1939

The Wizard of Oz as Munchkin (uncredited)
Three Texas Steers as Hercules - the Midget

1938

The Terror of Tiny Town as The Hero (Buck Lawson)

Crew

1971

Dirty Harry as Stunts